Operator associativity defines what happens if a sequence of the
same operators is used one after another: whether the evaluator will
evaluate the left operations first or the right. For example, in 8
- 4 - 2, subtraction is left associative so Perl evaluates the
expression left to right. 8 - 4 is evaluated first making the
expression 4 - 2 == 2 and not 8 - 2 == 6.

Perl operators have the following associativity and precedence,
listed from highest precedence to lowest. Operators borrowed from
C keep the same precedence relationship with each other, even where
C's precedence is slightly screwy. (This makes learning Perl easier
for C folks.) With very few exceptions, these all operate on scalar
values only, not array values.